Careful what you wish for
by Paul Mallon
Summary: Hope is all alone in the world, with no purpose in life. He soon has an epiphany and realize what his purpose in life, to save the ones that saved himself. Rated T for Tigers.
1. A hard life

**I know its a small first chapter, but you know the saying, "a fan fic of 100,000 words begins with a single character." **

**Oh and if you've played final fantasy xiii-2 pretend like the events of it never happened. This story picks off after the events of final fantasy xiii**

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Careful What You Wish For

My dad…my dad, he didn't make it. He was crushed by a piece of falling debris when cocoon fell. I spent weeks searching for his body and just when I was about to give up, I found it under a giant concrete slab. I've never really been the same since I saw his broken, mangled body out of the rubble, since I lost him and everybody other person in my life. The funeral was six years ago, though I still feel like it was yesterday.

I'm all alone now, living in a small one-story home in the crystal city, or so they call the city that has sprung up under the crystal pillar. I work at a small technology company called the academy. It's a humble life that I have accepted long ago. I have accepted that I will die alone, filled with regret, wondering what I could have done to save Vanille.

I over exaggerate, of course, but there's some truth to that. Snow and Sazh left almost immediately after the fall. Sazh went to live with his son in a small farming village in the countryside somewhere. Snow went off somewhere near the ocean to build a new Boodhum.

Lightning didn't leave till later. She and I both lived near each other in the crystal city. We spent time together, hunting, talking, trying to move on. She became my only friend, and was the only other person at my dad's funeral. But we just started to drift apart over time. One day, she walked in carrying a couple of suitcases. She told me she was leaving to new Boodhum to live with her sister. We hugged goodbye and I haven't seen her since.

This brings me to the present with me living alone in a small house with no drive or reason to live. It feels like I'm stuck in park and I can't quite shift into drive. It's funny, when I was fugitive sleeping on the cold hard ground eating crap day after day with no hope of living longer than another month, I still liked it better than I do. I remember one day on grand pulse I went off alone and prayed to someone; god, the maker, the universe, I don't really know, but I prayed to live longer than a year and to make it out of the situation I was in. Now that I have gotten out of it, all I wish was that I was there, when I was with friends, with Vanille. I wish that I once again had a purpose in life. At least that's what I wish for when I blow out my candles for my 20th birthday all alone.


	2. A broken chair

Five days after my birthday, it's Saturday, the day I take my weekly trip. I get up slowly, like I do every single day and slowly eat my breakfast of cold cereal, like I do every morning. The house is so quiet, so barren, so empty, it just makes me sad. I hate these times most of all, when I feel like there's nothing in my life…like there's nothing left to live for. I just stare out my window and sigh and watch the world outside my window. I grab a small fold up chair and sling it across my back and walk outside. I have to hike a couple miles to reach the small hangar where I rent my ship out of. I make good time and reach the hangar without even breaking a sweat. At least I'm in shape I say to myself.

The security guard, Paul, is there. I don't even have to show my ID to him, I've been here so many times he knows me. He shakes his head as the electric gate opens.

"Hope, where do you go with the spaceship? You've been renting it for years now and not once have you told me where or why you rent the ship," he asks as the gate opens.

"That's not for you to know," I say to Paul as I walk into the hangar. I don't tell him where I'm going because I'm embarrassed by it.

Inside the hangar are a few big ships and several small ones. I walk up to a small green one with a stripe on it. I waive my id in front of it and the ramp comes down. I walk on slowly, mechanically, without thought, as I have done at least a hundred times.

The journey takes only half an hour, as it did the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. I slowly land it into the small clearing I made, and walk through the tiny tunnel I made by hand and stop when I reach the main chamber. I set down my plastic chair and sit down and take in the peace.

"Hey Vanille," I say.

I made the landing a while ago. It wasn't that hard, all it took was a few good blasts from the ships lasers. The tunnel was harder, I couldn't risk breaking Vanille or Fang, and didn't know how far done they were, so I had to take my time with small bursts of magic fire. Ha, my magic is about the only thing I have left now.

People say that you don't know what you have until you lose it, and I couldn't agree with them more. I never got to say goodbye to Vanille, I never got to tell her how much she meant to me, how much I loved her. Yeah, I love her; I love her more than life itself. I remember how she saw a complete stranger and made it her mission to cheer him up. I remember how she wouldn't stop until I had closure with Snow. I remember how in Gran Pulse, when my brand jumped forward, she stayed at my side.

I came to her and Fang to pay my respects, and to honor their sacrifice. At least, that's what I originally came for. Now I think I just come to cry and to talk to Vanille. I know you may think it's weird to talk to a crystal statue, but it really has been the only thing that's kept me going.

I know she's still alive, just like Snow was sure that Serah was. I know she's in there, waiting to wake up again. I know she can hear me, I just know it. It's something I can feel in my bones. Even though nothing has changed since the first time I came here I know that one day, her eyes will open again. I only wish there was something I could do, like she did for me.

I'm deep in thought when I feel the chair go out from under me. I hit my head hard against the crystal and slowly get up and see that the chair has broken. I don't know if the hit knocked something into place, but suddenly everything is clear. I have to be the change I want to see in my life. My life suddenly has purpose and everything seems so bright and full of life. I know what I have to do now…

I have to wake up Vanille.

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**I know you think my chapters are short, but size don't matter. ITS NOT THE SIZE OF THE WAVES BUT THE MOTION OF THE OCEAN!**


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